This is great, but I think it's fair to point out that the fact we even need a GUIDE to know what order to read the books in represents a failure by IDW to properly plan their Transformers universe. I can't think of any other medium (TV, movies, novels) where this would be acceptable.

This is great, but I think it's fair to point out that the fact we even need a GUIDE to know what order to read the books in represents a failure by IDW to properly plan their Transformers universe. I can't think of any other medium (TV, movies, novels) where this would be acceptable.

How do we need a guide for the G1 cartoon? If you buy the DVD box set, you just watch them in order. James Bond - You just watch them in order of release.

For IDW I generally would read in order of release, but sometimes it has multiple books out with the same release month and year, so it's not simple to know what order they should go in. In the early days they had an overarching number system that let you know when to read a specific Spotlight or Escalation #2, but they abandoned it after a little while

How do we need a guide for the G1 cartoon? If you buy the DVD box set, you just watch them in order. James Bond - You just watch them in order of release.

Click to expand...

Bond - No numbering for the titles, how would you know what order they were released in?
G1 - How would you know when to watch the movie?

Barring Revalation's title change, and by extension Maximum Dinobots' and AHM's bungled-up release schedules, IDW G1 is more likely structured the way it is just due to the Transformers franchise's need to rebrand every few years combined with the sheer number of concurrent series sharing the same banner rather they can put out rather than a lack of planning on the writers' part, in which case probably nothing would fit together at all. I definitely wouldn't say that IDW's been getting worse over time either, as knowing when to read each Spotlight issue relative to the Furman-ation miniseries isn't doable without prior knowledge, and they're dead-essential to the plot.

[If you want a reading order for IDW G1 based on publication though, I recommend checking out MegatronWasRight's post.]